updated 3/1/10 with changes in reading dates for As I Lay Dying and Fences

updated 8/26

Sorry! Deadline changed to Sept. 2-4.

THESIS should convince reader that you’ve read and understand the work by addressing AUTHOR, TITLE, MEANING (THEME), and TONE.
ASSERTION should explain how and/or why author uses a specific literary element to create the aforementioned meaning.
EVIDENCE must come directly from the text as words and phrases in “” and worked into your own sentence to provide examples of the assertion-identified literary element.
COMMENTARY must explain how the previously-introduced evidence proves that the author is using the assertion-identified literary element to create the aforementioned meaning.

One definition of madness is “mental delusion or the eccentric behavior arising from it.: But Emily Dickinson wrote

Much madness is divinest Sense—
To a discerning Eye—

Novelists and playwrights have often seen madness with a “discerning Eye.” Select a novel or play in which a character’s apparent madness or irrational behavior plays an important role. Then write a well-organized essay in which you explain what this delusion or eccentric behavior consists of and how it might be judged reasonable. Explain the significance of the “madness” to the work as a whole. Do not merely summarize the plot.

Presentations in class on 3/8 -- MAJOR GRADE!